


Let You Down

by theskywasblue



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Episode Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-27
Updated: 2011-04-27
Packaged: 2017-10-19 00:59:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/195146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theskywasblue/pseuds/theskywasblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bobby wonders if he can do this again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let You Down

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "Grave"

“Bobby?”

Sam’s voice crackles on the other end of the phone line, wet and thick as molasses. Bobby looks at the calendar on the wall and knows exactly what day it is, feels the slow slide of grief from the back of his neck to the pit of his stomach.

They meet off a back road in the woods outside Pontiac, Illinois. Sam moves like he’s drunk – though he doesn’t smell of alcohol, at least not yet – his face is splotchy, his eyes red-rimmed, and he shakes all over as he wraps Bobby in his long arms. His grief weighs a million pounds or more and Bobby struggles to hold him up, wondering if he can do this again.

They take Dean out of the back seat of the Impala and lay him out on the ground. He’s wrapped in a blanket from the trunk, soaked bloody and the upholstery reeks from the spill of entrails.

Bobby is careful to take the time to look, because this is what hunters do – they stare into the abyss and they dare it to stare back.

When he closes Dean’s eyes with the tips of his fingers, Sam’s breath makes a hitching noise over his shoulder, an aborted sob. Bobby isn’t feeling it yet. On the way back to Sioux Falls he’ll check into a roadside motel, take the emergency bottle of Jack out of the well of the spare tire and drink until he’s cursing God, the Devil and John Winchester. Then he’ll get up in the morning and try to decide how he’s going to carry on.

“It’s alright, Sam,” he says finally, “I’ll help you take care of him.”

Because building a pyre for someone you love isn’t something you should have to do alone.

“No,” Sam says sharply, actually pushing Bobby away from Dean. “Nononono – Bobby we can’t. We can’t burn him.”

“Sam...”

“He’s going to need his body,” Sam’s eyes are huge and pleading and his hands are shaking like a landslide as he pulls the blanket back around his brother’s body. “He’s going to need it when I bring him back.”

Bobby could fight him – probably should, considering that last time he was too gentle, too understanding, and it led directly to this, Dean spread out and opened up, made a meal for hungry Hellhounds – but grief is a monster all its own and you can’t always fight it off. Sometimes you just have to let it sink its teeth into you.

“I’ll get a shovel,” he says instead.

-End-


End file.
